Mark Van Hoen
You'll Be Safe Forever
Release Date: Apr 16, 2013
Genre(s): Electronic, Experimental Ambient, Ambient Techno
Record label: Editions Mego
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Album Review: You'll Be Safe Forever by Mark Van Hoen
Fairly Good, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 7/10
In 2012, a few months after he released The Revenant Diary under his birth name, Mark Van Hoen was asked to perform live at New Jersey radio station WFMU. Van Hoen opted to create new material with the involvement of past collaborator Louis Sherman. The two's improvised pieces, developed prior to the on-air appearance, motivated Van Hoen to revive Locust, an alias that had been dormant for over a decade since the surprisingly direct and bracing Wrong.
Based on rating 3/5
“Time warped” is the phrase that most accurately describes the mood evoked by the latest Locust album, You’ll Be Safe Forever. While The Revenant Diary, released last year under Mark Van Hoen’s own name, was haunted with a crackling, crooked ambience, his unexpected return as Locust touches a familiar, softer chord. Its origin explains a lot: during Van Hoen and Louis Sherman’s shared live session for WFMU in 2012, the artists realized that they were actually working in the style of Locust — and hence, the way was paved for an initially-unplanned reboot.
Based on rating 5/10
When Mark Van Hoen was last working under the name Locust, it didn’t sound or feel like this. 2001’s Wrong spent roughly half its time riding the pop train, featuring understated female vocals. The rest of the time, it was balancing these “songs” with instrumental meditations that perfectly blended avant-garde with “pure moods”. It was like Moby meets Boards of Canada with an improvement over the former but never trying to upstage the latter.